Microsoft fingered as company forced to pay $136M in back

Righteous Dude

Microsoft fingered as company forced to pay $136M in back taxes in China

Microsoft may be have been targeted in a Chinese government crackdown on tax evasion, at a time when the company is already facing an anti-monopoly probe related to Windows and Microsoft Office sales in the country.

China’s state-controlled Xinhua News Agency said on Sunday that an unnamed international company was forced to pay 840 million yuan (US$136 million) in back taxes, as part of the crackdown.

The Xinhua article simply referred to it as the “M company,” describing it as a top 500 global firm headquartered in the U.S. that in 1995 set up a wholly owned foreign subsidiary in Beijing. The details match Microsoft’s own background, and no other company obviously fits the bill.